Now Arriving…!

The new line rocks! I went down there with my Brompton on the earlier side of things, this morning. I took the Red Line and changed seamlessly to the Expo Line at Metro/7th, and it was an excellent ride. I really do think (as I said in the previous post) that this is part of a major transformation for the city. This is a transformation with regards things like energy usage, congestion, community, air quality and all those wonderful things public transport helps with.

Of course, at the outset there is something truly right, to my mind, about being able to easily connect from downtown to Exposition Park and the Science and Natural History Museums, the African American Museum, and of course USC – All major Los Angeles institutions clustered together and now connected back to the newly beating heart of it all. From USC, I can now easily connect to the music center, LA Live, MOCA, any number of my favourite restaurants, bars, cafes, and other places I love downtown, and then float on home on the Red Line, or off to Pasadena or Boyle Heights on the Gold Line. This is so exciting to see come to pass. I’ve been dreaming of trains running along Exposition Boulevard between USC and the Museums and the Rose Garden for many years now, and it is now a reality. Stepping off the train today at the Expo Park/USC stop was just magical.

I recorded some footage of my travels on it today for you and edited it all together into a ten minute film. You can see it in the embed below. Consider it an invitation to come and explore, if you have not already come down. It’s downtown to USC and the Rose Garden and back again. (The sound is poor partly because I was trying to cover the microphone to shut out this one guy who would not stop talking… incessantly, and loudly.)

Here’s to the future, which includes (after phase 2 is done) the fact that I’ll be able to step onto the train 5 minutes outside my office and head all the way to the beach!

[…] Los Angeles. On Saturday he finally rode the Expo Line and shot the video above. Over at his blog, Asymptotia, he pronounces it a city-changing experience — “just magical.” The new line rocks! I […]

My first time on your blog. Hi all! Suffice it to say that a lazy Sunday viewing of the series marathon “The Universe” led me here. ;o)
Thanks for sharing your mass transit joy!… It gives me even more hope that cities will continue to see the MANY merits of investing in mass transit expansion. I’m in Charlotte, NC. We added the Lynx (train) line a few years ago. What a surge! Just last evening, I took the train uptown and, as I sat relaxing on my way home, I thought of how lucky I was to have this choice, and what a HUGE value-add it has been to our growing city. I have to say, for me, this is one of life’s simple pleasures.
Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to learning and sharing…

Thanks kfor visiting and commenting and thanks for watching the show. Glad you liked it. I’m also glad to hear of other people who have watched the positive change that happens with such infrastructure improvements.

Sounds great. Did you know that USC originally opposed the Expo Line, in particular having a station at USC/Expo Park? They contributed $300,000 towards a never-materialized ballot measure that would have required undergrounding of any stations– presumably because they didn’t want a rail line bisecting what they hope will one day be a unified USC campus that includes Expo Park. Glad they finally came around!

Yes, I did know that, and it is relatively well known. I think I’ve blogged about it here before. While the previous USC president (Sample) was known to have that objection, I think it is fair to say that very many people did not share his view that such a line above ground would disrupt the flow between the north and south of Exposition. If anything, it was clear to someone who spent enough time going back and forth between the campus and Exposition park (regularly eating lunch in the Rose Garden, for example) that such a line would in fact be more likely to bring more people from the USC campus to have reason to approach the park on days other than ones that have a big game on in the Coliseum. (One note I should add though.. I don’t think that President Sample or anyone had any plans involving Expo park being a part of the USC campus… just that there be healthy flow between the two bodies… and in my view an above ground line does nothing to stop that.)

In the summer of 1959, following my graduation from San Gabriel High School in Alhambra, I made a daily trek to participate in an honors radio and television workshop at USC.

I walked two blocks from our home to Valley Boulevard, where I got on the “MTA” 63V line, heading to downtown. There I transferred to the “J Car” (for “Jefferson”) streetcar and sailed quickly to the ‘SC campus.

Nice to see that all these years later, we are enjoying a “new” experience. Sad that our politicians failed to see the need for such transportation. They waited years and years, guaranteeing the the cost of the project would skyrocket, which it did.